Can You Learn a Language By Watching TV?

We all know that watching too much TV is frowned upon. Most of us grew up with our parents monitoring how much screen time we had. Even though TV is deemed as bad, can it benefit language learners?

The debate on whether watching TV shows can help you learn a language has been going on for a while. Some polyglots say that it's a waste of time. Others argue that it's your one-way ticket to fluency. So can you learn a language by watching TV? Let's find out.

Picking the Right Show

With the advancement of technology, people's attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter. This is why you need a show to suck you in. For any language learner to stick around, a TV show needs to have three key things to keep the viewer motivated:

• Engaging: This is important for any show to do well. If the show is boring, no one will watch it. Highly engaging shows with plots twists and cliff hangers will encourage the learner to stick around.

• Subtitles: You can't watch something in another language without subtitles. Then you're just sitting there hearing gibberish and making no connections. Subtitles can grow your vocabulary and help you learn common phrases that you may not find in a textbook.

• Predictable: When you're learning a language, it's best to watch a show with an easy plot. As you would see in a Korean drama or telenovela.

How to Learn Languages by Watching a TV Show

I can imagine right now that if you're watching TV in your native language. You might also be scrolling through your phone. Now you're distracted and passively watching the show. To learn a language by watching TV, you need to make it an activity:

• Focus: There shouldn't be any distractions around you. You cannot expect to learn anything by giving the show divided attention. You will get lost very easily, and the words will be meaningless.

• Break it down: You know that feeling when you're looking at a huge to-do list? Your brain gets overwhelmed. This same thing can happen if you try to watch a foreign TV show for an hour straight. If you don't break it down into parts, your brain becomes passive. 

• Write it down: Grab a notebook and a pen to write down new vocabulary words and phrases that might be unfamiliar to you. Then you can look them up later.

• Repeat: You can't learn something by just seeing or hearing it once unless you have a superpower. Repetition is how we absorb new information, especially a new language. It's best to watch episodes of shows a couple of times to go from getting the gist to understanding everything perfectly. 

Becoming proficient in a language requires practice in all four areas; reading, speaking, listening, and writing. People around the world have learned English at a decent level from watching "Friends." However, it depends on your language goals.

Watching a TV show is great for your study routine because you can get accustomed to the flow and pronunciation that language programs often water down. However, if you want to become fluent, you need to focus on more than listening.

Start by booking a lesson with a native tutor to boost your language skills. Justlearn is an online platform where you can find native tutors from all around the world in less than 2 clicks.

Start your journey to fluency today!